One week after each job is done, you are expected to submit a professionally written report. The first lab is not a group work lab, but the rest of the labs are. One report per student is required for the first lab. For the rest of the labs, one report is required per group. Please note:
- Reports are supposed to be typed. Only the computation part could be hand written
- When writing the report, always assume that you are addressing a client, not a person who is specialized in surveying. Be as clear as possible, your client may not know much about surveying. Explain any complicated term that you may use.
- All group members should sign the cover letter
The lab report will consist of a cover page, a cover letter, a table of contents, and the following sections:
- Objectives: could be as short as one paragraph. Explain the objectives of the task you are doing. Learning is one of your objectives, but you do not want to inform your client of that fact for now. You must be very clear and subjective. Avoid very technical terms or complicated thoughts. If the grader read that section and did not get a clear idea about why you did that job, chances are that you did not have a clear idea either. This section will get more loads in grading.
- Survey Plan: describe the location where the survey took place in details. Describe where every point is and what it is. Include a well-detailed sketch with a north arrow, location of all points used, and enough details for a person to walk through the site and locate your points.
- Data Acquisition: describe in details what you did to collect the data. Explain the steps you took as well as any equation you may apply later.
- Data Acquisition Problems: mention any problems and how you faced them, if any.
- Data Adjustment: If you did any adjustments, mention them in details. What method and how it was applied. What is the effect of the adjustment, could you actually adjust for the errors?
- Results: You must mention clearly the results. Do not refer to an index or another section. The results of the leveling lab for example should include the elevation of the points of interest. You can explain the results after that. It is wrong to explain the results and not mention what they are.
- Personnel: Names, jobs of all party members. There should be one chief. There could be more than one observer and more than one recorder. There may or may not be a rod person.
- Equipment: a list of equipment with their serial numbers. An instrument with no serial number, should also be mentioned with a remark that there was no serial number such as: NA.
- References: My lectures, lab instructions, the textbook, and whatever references you used.
- Appendix A: a copy of the field notebook.
- Appendix B: computations: the only part that needs not to be typed.
- You can include additional information if you think that is necessary. For Example, you may choose to have an appendix just for the sketch.
The major part of the grade will be assigned to the depth of your understanding of the lab procedures and objectives. The quality of the report is another part that is greatly considered. On the other hand, the quality of the work is not graded. Your grade will not be affected if your results are far off as long as you know that they are off. If you think that there is something wrong, you are not supposed to re-do the work, instead you are supposed to add a conclusion section and write down what seems to be the problem and your best estimate of the reasons. Failure to mention that there is something wrong will affect your grades.